Dunedin figures are below five other cities, information that has left Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts wondering why the city was not performing better.
Both Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie, however, question the figures. Mr Cull noted figures showed Dunedin’s tourism employment growth was higher than the national average, and asked how that could be if spending was not increasing.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment figures showing the lower spending growth in Dunedin drew comment at the Trenz tourism industry event in Dunedin this week, and Mr Christie yesterday released figures Enterprise Dunedin had commissioned.
Councillors were briefed on the figures yesterday. They will be discussed by the economic development committee later this month.
They showed Dunedin had the slowest spending growth of major cities in the last year, and the past decade, but 11% tourism employment growth.
At Trenz, Mr Roberts said Otago and Southland had an "enormous ability’’ to host more visitors.
There was an opportunity for the industry and councils to get aligned with a "single-minded purpose’’.
TIA was pleased with its input into holding Trenz this week, but the numbers from the last 12 months showed there was room for improvement in its work in tourism.
"I sometimes wonder why Dunedin is not performing better.’’
Mr Cull said he was sceptical about "singular stats that show we are going in the wrong direction’’.
"I find it hard to believe tourism employment is going up but the spending and the numbers go down.
"There’s something missing out of this — you don’t employ more people to service fewer visitors.’’
"I personally think Dunedin is tracking really well.’’
He said a review of Enterprise Dunedin announced recently was not to do with perceived shortcomings in the organisation. Rather, the review was signalled after Tourism Dunedin was closed four years ago and Enterprise Dunedin took over its work.
Mr Christie said the city was 28th out of 31 regional tourism organisations in terms of spending growth in Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment figures.
"Obviously we’d like to be higher.’’
The Clutha District was at No 3, with 15% growth, but was coming off a much lower spending base.
"It’s kind of hard to compare those growth figures.’’
However, the city had "got some work to do.’’
The figures gathered in the report would help the council understand what was happening, and Enterprise Dunedin would "keep digging into those numbers to see what we need to adjust, if anything’’.
The Trenz event this week, which brought 1500 industry insiders to Dunedin, would help attract visitors.
On the up
Tourism spending growth in past year
Auckland: 10.2%
Christchurch: 8.3%
Tauranga: 6.8%
Hamilton: 5.8%
Wellington: 5.5%
Dunedin: 4.5%
Dunedin tourism employment: 6701 jobs, up 11% a year (nationally, up 9.3%)
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Comments
Lowest tourism income growth along with highest employment growth? Sounds like a can of worms for IRD to open.
All eggs in one basket can be disastrous. Think gold, kiwi fruit, tobacco, cows, crayfish, manuka honey, cannabis. Better to develop skills and crafts so that people work in small communities and take a pride in their work.